


■ 
■ 






LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



PRESENTED BY 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



■ i 





J^*y*<^ 



cfL44*~r^a*c^L&/-~- 



WILLIAM W. DAVENPORT 



©Mtt 



May 20, 1870 







HENRY E. SIMMONS 

116 Washington Street 

Boston fibs 



v 




t H2Xt5 



THE REV? WM. W. DAVENPORT 

OF BOSTON, U.S.A. 

DIED AT PAU, MAY 20™, 1870 

AGED 54 YEARS. 



FOR SO HE GIVETH 
HIS BELOVED SLEEP. 



Inscription on tombstone at Pau. 




MEMORIAL. 



BY REV. A. HUNTINGTON CLAPP, D.D. 



Tl/ILLIAM WARD DAVENPORT, 

son of Elijah Davenport and Susan~ 
Ward Davenport, daughter of the Rev. 
Ephraim Ward, of West Brookfield, Mas- 
sachusetts, was born in Hallowell, Maine, 
February 28, 18 16. In that year his parents 
removed to Boston, and were both valued 
members of the Old South Church. Here 
William passed through the Franklin Gram- 
mar and the English High schools, from 
each of which he received at his gradu- 
ation a medal, for excellence in conduct 
and scholarship. His favorite study was 



MEMORIAL OF 



mathematics, and the effect of his early 
training in it was ever visible in the pre- 
cision and logical directness of his speech 
and writings. He had a natural gift for 
music, and was fascinated with the scien- 
tific study of it. While a mere boy, and 
a member of the Old South choir, he was 
instructed by Dr. Webb in harmony and 
thorough bass. His musical knowledge 
and skill did him good service, when called 
to lead the songs of mission-schools and 
neighborhood prayer-meetings; those of a 
church in South Carolina, where the exi- 
gencies of business took him for a time; 
and at length as a leader of the social wor- 
ship of his own people. 

After two voyages, one to China and one 
to Batavia, and some temporary service as 
a clerk and civil engineer, 1 Mr. Davenport 

1 As engineer he was engaged in the primary survey for 
the introduction of the Cochituate water into Boston, spend- 
ing the greater part of one summer in the field, and a portion 



WILLIAM W. DAVENPORT. 



entered the wholesale dry-goods house of 
Upham, Tucker, & Co., of Boston, where he 
remained, first as a clerk, then as a partner, 
for nearly twenty years. One of his part- 
ners l says of him : ff Courteous, cheerful, 
refined, intellectual, dignified, he exerted a 
high-toned, elevating influence upon all the 
young men in the office. In business he 
was punctual, accurate, industrious, and 
prudent. A strict disciplinarian, he exacted 
from others nothing beyond his own ex- 
ample. The motive and guide of his life 
was Truth, — to others, to himself, and to 
God, — as was shown in his voluntarily re- 

of the winter months in office work, — principally in calcula- 
tions of excavations and cuttings. One circumstance con- 
nected with his engineering work illustrates his faithfulness 
to duty and the strength of his will. Being engaged with a 
party in some surveys at Saco, he was taken ill, but, knowing 
that if he left his post the work of the corps would cease, 
he continued in the discharge of his duty, except one half 
day; and on his return home, after the work was completed, 
was pronounced by his physician as recovering from a 
typhoid fever. 

1 William W. Tucker, Esq. 



8 MEMORIAL OF 



linquishing, to the deep regret of his part- 
ners, a business easy, pleasant, and lucrative, 
because he thought it his duty to become a 
preacher of the gospel." 

Early converted, and thoroughly con- 
verted, he became a member of the Old 
South Church, with his parents; and in its 
activities cheerfully bore his part, through 
years full of the cares of business. His 
readiness for every good work won him the 
affection, and led to his sharing the labors, of 
the devoted Deacon Thomas Wilder, a "city 
missionary" before that name was known. 
With Deacon Wilder, or alone, after busi- 
ness hours, and on the Sabbath, he con- 
ducted prayer-meetings and held other 
religious services in the more neglected 
parts of the city, — in the Mariner's Church, 
the State Prison, Chelsea Hospital, and else- 
where. He was for several years Secretary 
of the Boston Sabbath School Union, and 



WILLIAM W. DAVENPORT. 



wrote annually its published reports ; was 
long the Secretary and a Director of the 
Penitent Female Refuge, — an institution 
for the reclaiming of erring women, to 
which he devoted much thought and study, 
and many laborious Sabbath and secular 
hours. " At the monthly meetings he was 
always present," writes one of his co- 
workers, 1 " was always warmly interested in 
the religious state of the inmates, with 
whom he personally conversed and prayed, 
with a wise adaptation to each case. He 
officiated regularly on the Sabbath, and 
established a weekly service which has been 
continued to the present time, — sixteen 
years." 

He was also active in maintaining the 
prayer-meeting from which, afterwards, 
grew the Shawmut Church. In all these 
self-denying ways, Mr. Davenport was com- 

1 S. G. Deblois, Esq. 



IO MEMORIAL OF 



pacting his religious character, long before 
Young Men's Christian Associations were 
thought of, and when it was common for the 
young Christian to feel that he did his whole 
duty if he sat at the feet of the elders, a quiet 
learner. Not that his spiritual life mainly 
showed itself in outward activity : far from 
that. After a hard day's work at the desk, 
and an evening in the prayer-meeting or the 
sick-room, far into the quiet night (or rather 
the early morning), he sat at the feet of the 
true "elders," — the inspired writers of the 
volume which, to the day of his death, he 
studied with a reverence and prayerfulness 
that enriched his own life, and made him 
the wise, safe teacher of others. Though he 
prized and carefully examined the works of 
the best commentators, his favorite method 
of study was the comparing of Scripture 
with Scripture, — and he acquired a sufficient 
knowledge of the ancient languages to do 



WILLIAM W. DAVENPORT. n 

this in the original, — striking from one por- 
tion the light that made other portions clear. 
These studies he loved to pursue, pen in 
hand; and a difficult subject was pretty sure 
to lead to an informal essay, as a means of 
shaping and fixing his own conclusions, and 
calling out the diverse views of others. 
Very few, even of his Christian brethren, 
dreamed that many articles in the religious 
papers, and in the "Panoplist" (of which 
he was one of the most valued contributors, 
and at one time the editor), were the mid- 
night work of the modest young merchant, 
whose missionary visits helped to fill their 
social meetings, and whose prayers and ex- 
hortations enlivened them. 

It is but simple truth to say — what may 
encourage and quicken other busy young 
men — that, by perseverance in these night 
studies of the Bible and standard theologic 
writers, Mr. Davenport became as well 



12 MEMORIAL OF 



versed in doctrinal theology at least as are 
the average of our ministers on leaving the 
Seminary, after their nine or ten years' 
course of classical and sacred study, while 
it is believed that very few men were his 
equals in a knowledge of the Bible, its con- 
tents and history. 

While engaged in these studies and this 
Christian work, Mr. Davenport transferred 
his church relations, with his home, from the 
Old South to the Eliot Church in Roxbury, 
under the care of Rev. Dr. A. C. Thompson, 
where for years he used well the office of a 
deacon, and took a leading part in the Sab- 
bath school. Says an intelligent member of 
his Bible class : l " He was one of the best 
Sabbath school teachers that ever lived. He 
had the clearest ideas of those truths of the 
Bible which it is profitable to discuss, and 
was willingly ignorant of the explanation of 

1 Mr. William P. Kittredge, of Orange, New Jersey. 



WILLIAM W. DAVENPORT. 



13 



mysteries which he considered as purposely 
hidden by God. No number of questions 
could involve him in a discussion which 
would be of no benefit to the class. He 
must have spent much time over the lessons, 
for his explanations were full and unanswer- 
able." 

Chiefly through the influence and by the 
advice of Dr. Thompson, Mr. Davenport 
was induced, at the age of forty-two, to leave 
the prosperous business to which he had 
given so many precious years, and to prepare 
himself for the gospel ministry. K It was 
deeply interesting," writes one of his most 
intimate friends, 1 " to see the movement of 
his mind, in settling this question of duty; to 
see the accomplished and prosperous mer- 
chant, with the best prospects for the accu- 
mulation of wealth, yet so ready to leave all 
at the voice of the Master, which seemed to 

1 Rev. Dr. E. W. Hooker. 

2 



H 



MEMORIAL OF 



say, c Go thou and preach the kingdom of 
God ! ' Would that his example in this un- 
usual movement could be placed before the 
minds of young men, in our colleges and else- 
where, calling themselves Christians, who 
turn their thoughts to the gainful professions 
and pursuits of life, rather than to the minis- 
try of that gospel on which they claim to 
found their hopes for eternity. The pro- 
cesses of such a mind in coming to the con- 
clusion, ? Woe is unto me, if I preach not the 
gospel,' it would seem must be seriously 
suggestive to any considerate young man 
counting himself a follower of Jesus, and 
constrain him to cast one glance at least 
toward the ministry, and to lift the inquiry, 
? Lord, what wilt thou have me to do ? ' " 

After two or three years more given 
wholly to study, under the wise direction of 
his pastor, Mr. Davenport was "licensed" 
by the neighboring brethren; and on the 



WILLTAM W. DAVENPORT. 



IS 



23d of August, 1 86 1 ? was ordained to his 
only pastorate, — that of the Congregational 
Church in West Killingly (Danielsonville), 
Connecticut, which office he filled for a little 
more than seven years, leaving it on the last 
day of September, 1868. He then served the 
Theological Institute of Hartford, Connecti- 
cut, as its Financial Secretary, until, com- 
pelled to lay down all active labor by the 
development of pulmonary disease, under 
medical advice, and accompanied by his 
brother, he sailed from New York, on the 3d 
of February, 1870, for the more genial cli- 
mate of Pau, in southern France. There he 
died, May 20, 1870, in the fifty-fifth year of 
his age. 

It is not the object of this sketch — in- 
tended only for the eyes of personal friends, 
more or less familiar with the outer and 
inner life of its subject — to give any thing 



1 6 MEMORIAL OF 



more than a mere outline of either. No 
friend of Mr. Davenport will thank another 
for obscuring his own remembrance of the 
man we loved, by undertaking to give a 
complete portrait of him. Several who 
knew him best have suggested such features 
as seemed to them most marked or attractive, 
believing that the fixing on record of here 
and there a prominent trait may help all of 
us the better to retain an image which we 
would not willingly forget. 

THE CHRISTIAN. 

All who knew Mr. Davenport will agree 
that his most characteristic trait was consci- 
entiousness. To the bar of a conscience 
spiritually enlightened, made pure and sen- 
sitive by Scripture study and prayer, he 
spontaneously brought his own life, as he 
there tried all questions of social and public 
morals and duty. That was something 



WILLIAM W. DAVENPORT. 



17 



more than a casual " habit," which showed 
itself in his scrupulous neatness, method, 
punctuality; in even such "little things" as 
his dress and personal bearing, the orderly 
arrangement of his writing-table imple- 
ments; his nice care of books and manu- 
scripts; his fair and legible penmanship; 
the very folding and superscription of the 
hastiest letter; in the church records, which 
in his hands shared the same care that at 
home and abroad kept his pocket memoran- 
dum of daily expenses accurately balanced 
at the end of the week. :? Your brother 
must have been a very prudent, careful 
man," wrote the Consul at Pau, " for I find 
no debts beyond two or three days' board 
at the hotel, and a few medicines." This 
trait appeared more conspicuously in the 
careful system by which he divided his time, 
allotting to visiting, correspondence, reading, 
study, devotion, each its portion; in his 



MEMORIAL OF 



benefactions, measured by settled principles, 
adhered to when the doing it cut him off 
from innocent and otherwise profitable ex- 
penditures. 

In all these matters, he acted under the 
firm control of conscience, as really as in 
his early studies and Christian work; as 
when deciding the question of entering the 
ministry; or when, as a .minister, he gave 
himself to study and prayer, intensely anx- 
ious that his presentation of truth should 
not merely please, intellectually quicken or 
inform his hearers, but under God save 
their souls; or when, as a pastor, questions 
of administration brought him into conflict 
with brethren whom he loved. Said one of 
his people, 1 who knew him thoroughly for 
seven years, — four of which Mr. Davenport 
spent under his roof, — "I esteem him as a 
man of integrity beyond any one I ever 

1 S. Hutchins, M. D. 



WILLIAM W. DAVENPORT. 



*9 



knew; honest, upright, a man of God." And 
a neighboring pastor 1 testifies, w Thoroughly 
orthodox, evangelical, moderately conserva- 
tive, he sought out the old paths and walked 
straightforward in them, conscientiously, 
with no faltering step." 

On questions of doctrine, and of practical 
Christian and church life, he made up his 
mind slowly, with careful study, consulta- 
tion with others, and earnest prayer; and 
when in matters of moment he had decided, 
he stood firm as the eternal hills. For a 
worthy cause, he would have gone to the 
stake as readily as he gave up his pastorate 
rather than take one step from what he re- 
garded as the plain path of duty. In times 
of persecution, he would have been very 
likely to meet a martyr's fate; yet he 
was no ascetic. Few men equalled him in 
social, genial qualities, in relish for wit, 

1 Rev. Francis Williams. 



20 MEMORIAL ^OF 



appreciation of the ludicrous, or enjoyment 
of hours of relaxation with trusted friends. 

The Rev. Dr. William Thompson, of 
Hartford, Connecticut, after speaking of Mr. 
Davenport's "well-balanced and well-fur- 
nished mind, his good judgment, settled faith, 
and sweet Christian temper," adds: "Clear- 
ness and accuracy of perception, aptness 
for patient thought, cautious deliberation in 
forming judgments, and firmness in adhering 
to opinions once weighed and intelligently 
adopted ; candor and kindness in dealing 
with men holding sentiments averse to his 
own,— these occur to me as traits readily 
discerned in our departed friend. Judged 
by Scriptural tests, his character will bear a 
closer scrutiny than that of most men in the 
church and ministry, whom it has been my 
fortune to know since coming into public 
life, about forty years ago. So many prove 
hollow, or one-sided, or faithless, or incon- 



WILLIAM W. DAVENPORT. ■ 21 

sistent, or childishly weak, or double- 
tongued^, or thoroughly apostate, after running 
well for a season, that, next to the beloved 
Son of God, our Saviour, one's heart goes 
out to a sound, trust-worthy, conscientious, 
prayerful, patient, Christian minister of the 
gospel. Thanks to divine grace for the 
examples of lowly reverence, sturdy faith, 
and self-forgetful love, that we are permitted 
to know as companions in toil and suffering 
on earth, and hope to meet in heaven." 

THE PASTOR. 

As a pastor, this chief trait had full 
scope, and was patent to all. Even careless 
observers saw that he was wholly absorbed 
in his work ; that the spiritual welfare of 
his people held the first place in his mind 
and heart. Some intimate friends knew 
how carefully he made, revised, and studied 
a census of his people and their children, 



22 MEMORIAL OF 



that each might receive a portion in due 
season, and be surely borne personally to 
God in prayer. 

He loved the young, and kept the Sab- 
bath school under his affectionate, prayerful 
supervision. The sick, including chronic 
invalids, of whom some tire after a time, 
will never forget his faithfulness. "To the 
afflicted, he was tender as one who had felt 
the touch of sorrow. In his visits among 
his people, of whatever worldly condition," 
writes one of them, 1 "he was most faithful; 
the child of sorrow always found in him a 
sympathizing friend, and many a sad heart 
was made happy by his words of comfort." 
His personal intercourse in the households 
of his parish, and families outside his flock, 
was marked by the purity, dignity, circum- 
spection, and spirituality of the true ambas- 
sador of Christ. That his sound judgment, 

1 Mr. Israel Simmons. 



WILLIAM W. DAVENPORT. 



23 



tender, considerate, but ever faithful love 
made him a precious adviser for spiritually 
troubled souls, many can testify. 

It was but natural that these qualities 
should cause him to be in high esteem 
among the churches and ministerial breth- 
ren about him ; in councils, associations, 
meetings of the "American Board," — 
of which he was a corporate member, — 
and the counsels of other religious and 
charitable bodies, whose interests he was 
ever ready to forward by his strong ad- 
vocacy, and by his own example of liberal 
giving. " In our ministerial and other meet- 
ings," says a brother pastor, " he was always 
present promptly, and fully prepared, thus 
gaining a pre-eminent influence in our church 
affairs, in which business he mingled un- 
swerving adherence to truth and right with 
great suavity. He held no doubtful position. 
We knew where to find him, and that he 



2 4 



MEMORIAL OF 



would stand there, until convinced of error." 
For the social meetings of the church he 
conscientiously prepared, by study, medi- 
tation, and prayer, aiming to make them 
useful to his people and helpful to the chief 
end of his ministry, — the ingathering of 
souls, which he was far more anxious to 
gather surely and permanently, by true con- 
version, than rapidly and in great numbers, 
under the rush of a passing excitement. 
As to measures in times of religious interest, 
particularly in reference to " the system of 
modern evangelism," his published sermon 
on that subject shows that his sentiments 
were carefully matured • and if he adhered 
to them against the pressure of some of his 
people, those who differed most widely from 
him will agree that he acted as one who felt 
that he must be faithful to souls, as one that 
must himself give account of his own 
stewardship — to his Master and not to his 
brethren. 



WILLIAM W. DAVENPORT. 



2 5 



Of his unsparing labors in a time of relig- 
ious awakening, the venerable Dr. E. W. 
Hooker, who was with him in a revival in 
1868, bears this testimony : "I had oppor- 
tunity to observe the intense interest with 
which he entered into the cases of the 
awakened, and of the hopefully converted • 
and the anxiety with which he looked upon 
those who were in danger of losing the 
precious season of opportunity, or who moved 
on thoughtless ; his deep solicitude at the 
course of some of his people who desired 
new and extraordinary measures, and who 
seemed to him to depend less upon the 
power of the Spirit of God than on the 
presence and ministrations of some noted 
evangelist. His prayers in the family, in 
the Sabbath and evening services, the sea- 
sons of prayer which we had in his study, 
his instructions in the conference room, and 
to inquirers, all evinced the tender and 

3 



26 MEMORIAL OF 



solicitous feelings of the pastor, respecting 
the effects of the revival among his people, 
and his solemn conceptions of his own re- 
sponsibilities as their spiritual watchman 
and guide. It was a c study ' so to look at 
the man who had left the highway to wealth, 
that he might point inquiring sinners to the 
Lamb of God." 

THE PREACHER. 

As a preacher, Mr. Davenport shaped 
both his theory and practice by the same 
unerring rule. He sought to please God 
rather than men, though he was by no 
means indifferent to the approval of judi- 
cious hearers, and gave careful attention to 
the manner as well as the matter of his 
sermons, that he might win souls. His aim 
was that his church might be built up, not 
puffed up. Hence he was eminently Scriptu- 
ral^ in his themes and the method of their 



WILLIAM W. DAVENPORT. 



27 



treatment. Every day had its hours consci- 
entiously given to Bible study, with the aids 
of modern learning, and that best aid of the 
Holy Spirit in answer to prayer. Few men 
shrink more sensitively than he did from 
a partial preparation for the pulpit, or uni- 
formly give to it more serious study. As 
a consequence, the unanimous voice of 
thoughtful hearers pronounced him an emi- 
nently instructive preacher. " The most 
instructive preacher I ever heard," says one 
of his people; "and, under his ministry, this 
church will bear record, we grew in divine 
knowledge." 

He was a doctrinal preacher, from a 
necessity of his nature. He had a doc- 
trinal system which he had long and thor- 
oughly studied, and believed in with all his 
soul. Christ was its corner-stone, and 
upon Him were laid the pillars and builded 
in harmonious proportions all the polished 



28 MEMORIAL OF 



courses of the spiritual structure. When he 
stood up to preach, Christ was ever the cen- 
tral figure, behind whom the preacher was 
hidden, and to whom he would attract every 
hearer. Conservative by nature, logical in 
his method, sensible, unimaginative and 
unimpassioned, with an undisguised con- 
tempt for "the sensational," presupposing 
attention in the hearer, and some fair ac- 
quaintance with religious truth, appealing 
to the reason and conscience rather than to 
feeling; his style clear, simple, direct, sel- 
dom ornate and never flashy; drawing his 
illustrations largely from Scripture and other 
lofty sources, seldom from every-day occur- 
rences, and neVer descending to the low or 
undignified, keenly sensitive at any approach 
to vulgar or even secular associations with 
the Sabbath and the house of God; appeal- 
ing habitually to higher motives than fear, 
self-interest, or passion; aiming after thor- 



WILLIAM W. DAVENPORT. 



2 9 



ough and permanent rather than immediate, 
striking, transient results, — his preaching 
may have been too largely after the model 
of his own moral and intellectual structure: 
it was doubtless better adapted to edify intel- 
ligent Christians (to whom, though aiming 
rightly to divide the Word, he best loved to 
preach), than to rouse, sway, and overpower' 
the impenitent. And yet on fit occasions 
he could stir the feelings with masterly skill, 
and the conscience of many a hearer has 
writhed in the grasp of his quiet but resist- 
less power. The records of the church will 
show its steady, healthful, permanent enlarge- 
ment from the world during the seven years 
of his ministry ; and from other congrega- 
tions not a few count him as their spiritual 
father. 

He did not lose or mar the influence of 
his preaching, by eccentricities in the pulpit 
or inconsistencies out of it. What he gained 

3* 



3° 



MEMORIAL OF 



he held. And by this quiet, unobtrusive 
man, some were gained whom many a 
learned and eloquent divine had sought in 
vain to win. In a city where he occasion- 
ally preached, there was among his hearers 
a young lady of beauty, culture, and pre- 
possessing manners, courted by society for 
her remarkable musical talents, but gay and 
worldly, delighted with herself and her posi- 
tion. No one could approach her upon the 
matter of personal religion. On hearing 
Mr. Davenport, she sought his acquaintance, 
opened to him her heart, asked and re- 
ceived his spiritual guidance. She died 
soon after, leaving with her friends the testi- 
mony that w she had never known a minister 
whose character was so beautifully consist- 
ent, and whose example and teachings had 
made so deep an impression on her mind." 

So just a man as Rev. Dr. Hooker says 



WILLIAM W. DAVENPORT. 



31 



of Mr. Davenport's preaching : w He was 
above the aim to be what is called ? a popu- 
lar preacher/ but the discourses I heard from 
him were rich in sound Scriptural instruc- 
tion. His style was simple, clear, and fault- 
less. His delivery was in a good degree 
natural, and always impressive from his seri- 
ousness of manner. I should have accounted 
it a privilege in my declining years to attend 
upon a ministry such as his, had Providence 
so ordered it. In his death the churches 
have lost one of their best servants in the 
gospel, and the ministers one of their best 
brethren in the sacred office." 

Another friend of many years' standing, 
and his occasional hearer, 1 writes: "As a 
preacher, I have always regarded Mr. Dav- 
enport as able, persuasive, and deeply sol- 
emn, holding the attention of his audience 
to the close. Many of his sermons were 

1 Eben. Wheelwright, Esq., of Newburjport. 



32 



MEMORIAL OF 



marked by peculiar tenderness and pathos, 
and were written and delivered under most 
affecting apprehensions of their truth and 
importance. It seemed to me impossible 
that they should not be deeply felt. He 
preached in different churches in Newbury- 
port, and was greatly beloved and admired 
by the most evangelical portion of the com- 
munity. The general impression of him in 
this city was, that he was a wise, able, and 
faithful minister of Christ. Christian so- 
briety and consistency were the marked 
features of his character as known among 
us, and he secured the involuntary respect 
of all who knew him here." 

THE FRIEND. 

The hand falters as it comes to trace the 
lineaments of Mr. Davenport as a friend. 
As a Christian, a preacher, a pastor, he 
stands in his place among a great and hon- 



WILLIAM W. DAVENPORT. 



33 



ored company; but summoned as a "friend" 
he steps out from that wide public sphere, 
and takes his wonted place with us alone by 
the fireside or the study-table of home; and 
the pen, that ran apace as it told what he 
was to the public, hesitates, wavers, stops, 
refuses to tell what he was and ever will be 
to us. Open letters before us say, "As a 
friend, he was confiding, generous, obliging, 
faithful, affectionate." 1 

"After ten years' enjoyment of his confi- 
dence, I can say that I never found him too 
busy to help a friend, nor too much en- 
grossed by care to give attention, advice, 
and sympathy. He was peculiarly fitted to 
advise, not only by his wisdom and candor, 
but by his power of making others' joys and 
sorrows his own. I cannot but esteem him 
as a model friend." 2 



1 Rev. F. Williams. 

2 Mr. Henry E. Simmons. 



34 



MEMORIAL OF 



^ Of his character as a friend," writes Mr. 
Wheelwright, " I can hardly speak as I 
ought. I loved him as a brother; and the 
solemn message of his death was as an 
arrow from the Almighty, deeply wounding 
my heart. To me his life and conversation 
were the fruits of a religion that, to produce 
such excellencies, must be divinely true. 
I have met with few, in my life, in whom I 
saw so much to approve, and so little to 
condemn. He was a monitor as well as a 
friend; for every part of his character was 
instructive, and its beautiful symmetry was 
a moral lesson, which I never studied with- 
out feeling its commanding influence, and 
wondering at that divine grace which made 
it so lovely and so impressive. I am deeply 
grateful that I had such a friend, so kind, so 
constant, so faithful; and now that he is 
gone, I love to recall the hours that we have 
spent together, the themes of our converse, 



WILLIAM W. DAVENPORT. 



35 



and the spirit which pervaded all our inter- 
course." 

To such testimony the tried friendship of 
more than a quarter of a century needs to 
add little, save in the way of corroboration. 
Conscientious in his friendships, as in all 
else, he held them as sacred trusts from 
God, for mutual spiritual profiting, and to 
have violated a confidence would have been 
to him sacrilege. He believed in concerted 
prayer, and held very precious the promise 
to the two who " shall agree on earth as 
touching any thing that they shall ask." 
Trustful of his friends, he frankly opened 
his own heart, and, without obtruding either 
his joys or sorrows, he kept from those he 
loved no experiences which might profit 
them in the sharing. And when admitted 
to the like confidence in return, it was a 
rare case for which he failed to find some- 
thing helpful in his treasures of reading or 
experience. 



36 MEMORIAL OF 



To the moods of sorrow, his chastened 
heart could not but be tenderly susceptible. 
After a few happy months, and the birth of 
an only son, who survives him, and whose 
dutiful affection soothed the loneliness of 
many homeless years, the companion of his 
youth was smitten with a hopeless mental 
malady, that separated them, with one brief 
interval, for the rest of life; and the man so 
fitted for, and dependent on, the solaces of 
domestic love, deeply prized the homes 
where he was known and welcomed. Into 
those homes he brought much of the cheer 
that he found there. 

None knew better than he how to differ 
from another without coldness or alienation. 
Unlike the esteemed friend last quoted, the 
writer of this sketch did not wholly agree 
with its subject, as to certain modes of state- 
ment, if indeed as to actual points of belief, 
which mark diverse " schools " of theology, 



WILLIAM W. DAVENPORT. 



37 



and which Mr. Davenport regarded as of 
great importance. For years these points 
were at times sharply discussed, and to the 
end of his life often referred to ; yet, with all 
his tenacity of doctrinal opinion, nothing- 
like the odium theologicum ever found lodge- 
ment in his heart. In the intercourse of all 
these years, in the hundreds of letters yet 
preserved, written on all sorts of subjects, 
in every variety of time, place, and mood, 
with the utmost possible frankness of ex- 
pression, there was no word of coldness or 
indifference, no momentary wavering of a 
trustful affection, unchanging, save as the " 
years mellowed and ripened it, from its birth 
among the hills of New England, till amid 
the verdant scenes of southern France the 
dying hand penned its final message, re- 
ceived a week after the telegraphic an- 
nouncement of his death: "Be sure, my 
dear , that I appreciate the kindness 

4 



38 MEMORIAL OF 



of your continued prayers, and hope that 
you will not grow weary. I know that 
many prayers ascend for me, and that the 
answer will come in the best way. Rest 
assured, too, that in this comparatively short 
letter is concentrated all the love that twenty 
pages could express." 

Three days after these words were writ- 
ten, — probably the last that he ever penned, 
— he went to take the hand of the Best 
Friend, and walk with Him for ever. 

THE PATIENT SUFFERER. 

His brother, who had accompanied him 
from New York to Paris, left him there, 
feeling stronger and quite able to make his 
way alone to Pau. For nearly three 
months, his letters were very encouraging. 
Under the kind care of Dr. Whipple, an 
American resident physician, he seemed to 
be gaining steadily, and was planning to 



WILLIAM W. DAVENPORT. 



39 



make an extensive tour through Italy, 
Switzerland, Germany, etc. Meanwhile he 
had formed pleasant acquaintances in Pau, — 
especially that of Rev. Mr. Langmuir, an 
American ; and Rev. Mr. Brown, resident 
pastor of the Scotch Presbyterian Church, 
with whom, as he wrote, he had very de- 
lightful communion over the fifteenth chap- 
ter of John. At Mr. Brown's evening 
meetings he had twice offered prayer, and 
was hoping for strength to address his 
people at the communion season on the ist 
of May ; but that day found him too feeble, 
and from it he failed rapidly. He saw that 
he must give up his long European journey, 
and by advice of the physician changed his 
plan for a summer's sojourn in Bagneres de 
Bigorre, a short trip having proved that the 
air of Bayonne and Biarritz was too bracing. 
His letters from the ist of May were in 
a different tone, — less confident of recover- 



4o 



MEMORIAL OF 



ing, but none the less full of Christian trust : 
" I am still in the same kind, mighty hands, 
and there I am best off. I do not feel lonely 
or depressed : I try to rest in the Lord, and 
wait patiently for him ; and there is a good 
degree of peace in that. Of course I hope 
for a good result, but am prepared for what- 
ever pleases the Great Physician. I wait 
patiently for what the Lord purposes to do, 
hoping, yet I trust submissive." 

The day set for leaving Pau for the Pyre- 
nees found him suffering from debility and 
difficulty of breathing. The physician pre- 
scribed for him, and in the afternoon he felt 
so much better as to stroll, with a book, into 
the neighboring park. After reading for an 
hour or two, he rose to return, but was too 
weak to walk, and rode to the hotel, less 
than a quarter of a mile, and reached it pros- 
trate and almost breathless. Under medical 
treatment he partially revived, calmly gave 



WTLLIAM W. DAVENPORT. 



41 



directions in case of his death, and continued 
in that enfeebled but painless state for a day 
or two. The Rev. Mr. Brown, who had 
been called to Spain, returned just in time 
to find that his friend had breathed his last. 
But the patient had the tenderest care of Dr. 
Whipple and other friends, who did all that 
Christian kindness could do, until, at seven 
o'clock on the morning of May 20th, 1870, 
he roused himself as from slumber, looked 
up and said, "I think I am dying," and in 
a moment gently fell asleep in Jesus. 

His funeral was attended the next morn- 
ing, in the Scotch Church, by about twenty 
gentlemen, half of them Americans, to whom 
" he had endeared himself by his living 
piety, gentleness and wisdom." In the 
church, Mr. Brown read a part of the eighth 
chapter of Romans, and offered prayer ; at 
the grave he read a part of the seventh chap- 

4* 



4 2 



MEMORIAL OF 



ter of the Revelation, and prayed again. The 
cemetery, just outside the city, is described 
as "a beautiful spot, looking down the val- 
ley, and commanding a view of the moun- 
tains." In it the remains of several thousands 
of English and Americans await the last 
trumpet's morning call. There we leave 
the ashes of our friend, " in sure and certain 
hope," believing that the words spoken of 
him by the Rev. Dr. William Thompson 
are as true as they are beautiful : " ? When 
the vine-clad hills of southern France shall 
give up their dead, there will be early wit- 
nesses for Christ's cross and crown, martyrs 
of early times, but no one of that age, or any 
other, more intelligently or firmly grounded 
in Christian faith than the modest, truthful, 
self-sacrificing man who has just fallen 
asleep at Pau." 

" The great Intelligences fair, 
That range above our mortal state. 



WILLIAM W. DAVENPORT. 



43 



In circle round the blessed gate, 
Received and gave him welcome there ; 

" And led him through the blissful climes, 
And showed him in the fountain fresh 
All knowledge that the sons of flesh 
Shall gather in the cycled times. 

" And, doubtless, unto him is given 
A life that bears immortal fruit, 
In such great offices as suit > 

The full-grown energies of heaven.". 

In a home on this side of the sea, where 
our friend was always most welcome, and 
where he loved to be, — the home from 
which he went to the ship that bore him 
from our earthly sight for ever, — there was 
a gentle child, of ten years, who loved him, 
and whom he loved \ in whose prayers his 
name was uttered when she nightly com- 
mended her " dear friends " to the Saviour's 
care. He left her well and joyous, and 
affectionately remembered her in his letters, 
to the last. 



44 



MEMORIAL OF 



On the very day that he began to show- 
sure symptoms of the coming change, she 
was smitten with painful disease. While he 
was bearing up under oppressive weakness, 
and pining for the reviving air of the moun- 
tains, this young frame was rapidly sinking, 
and on Friday, May 6th, just two weeks 
before her friend, she left desolate the 
earthly home, and "entered in, through the 
gates, into the city." 

The sad letter telling of her death reached 
Pau a day or two after Mr. Davenport's 
decease ; so he was kindly spared the pain 
of that intelligence, and to both of them, we 
love to think, was given the joyful surprise 
of a speedy meeting in our Father's house. 

Onward from life's meridian, how rapidly 
does the circle of our sacred friendships 
narrow here — thank God, to widen above ! 
How strong becomes the attraction to that 



WILLIAM W. DAVENPORT. 



45 



brighter world, sinless and deathless, where 
we shall find again those whom we have 
given back to Him, the resurrection and the 
life ! — where we shall find them all, — the 
wise, whose mellow, ripened piety reflected 
back the hues of heaven as their sun went 
down ; the strong, whose manly vigor gave 
courage to Christian enterprise ; the unworn, 
unworldly, whose morning freshness im- 
parted a keener zest to hope; and with them 
the little flowers, whose beauty and fragrance 
cheered our homes for a while, and yet 
remain in loving memory, a breath of Para- 
dise, a stirring prophecy of eternal re- 
union. 

" They rest, they sleep, their sleep is sweet ; 

" They do not die, 
Nor lose their mortal sympathy, 
Nor change to us, although they change. 

" And love will last, as pure and whole 
As when they loved us here in Time, 
And at the spiritual prime 
Re-waken with the Dawning Soul ! " 



Owing to sickness and absence, the following letter 
was not received in time to be incorporated into the 
Memorial. 

Boston Highlands, May 9, 1S71. 
****** 

"jV/TR. DAVENPORT held the office of deacon 
five years out of the ten that he resided 
here. He was elected to that position because 
the brethren found him to be "grave, not double- 
tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of 
filthy lucre, holding the mystery of the faith in a 
pure conscience." Like the primitive seven who 
were set apart for the same service, he seemed to 
be a man "full of the Holy Ghost and of faith." 
The expectations of no one were disappointed. 
He knew how to hold the office without being 
officious. Good judgment, a ready tongue and 
pen, a clear apprehension of what a Congrega- 
gational Church of Christ with its officers should 
be and do, and a conscientious devotion to his 
own duties, were among his acknowledged 



WILLIAM W. DAVENPORT. 



47 



characteristics. In attendance upon social meet- 
ings I never knew him to be tardy ; while, in 
taking a part actively in the exercises, he was 
ready without being forward, and he had the 
rare gift of knowing when and how to stop. 
From the Bible class of young men whom he 
instructed, several have been called to the same 
office in other churches, and one or more to the 
Christian ministry. , 

Mr. Davenport's thorough preparations to meet 
this class in the Sabbath school were greatly 
helpful — though not so designed — to his 
entrance upon that " good degree " to which 
Providence called him. In July of 1856, I had 
a conversation with him relating to that subject. 
After two months of deliberation and earnest 
prayer, he communicated his decision to retire 
from secular business, and devote himself to the 
ministry of the Word. It would be superfluous 
to say that this step was taken in a deep con- 
viction that the hand and the Spirit of God were 
leading him. His mind once made up on that 
point, I am not aware that he ever for a moment 
swerved in his purpose. It was not till June, 
of the year following, that he was so far dis- 



4« 



MEMORIAL OF 



entangled as to give himself wholly to needed 
preparations. He spent an hour with me daily, 
Sabbaths excepted, bringing to this new work 
well-established habits of accuracy and thorough- 
ness. His success was of the most gratifying 
kind. Before Thanksgiving Day, of that year, 
1857, Mr. Davenport had been through the 
Greek grammar thoroughly, had read a portion 
of John's Gospel, had finished the Epistle to the 
Colossians, had commenced the study of He- 
brew, had written one good sermon, and had 
made an excellent beginning in systematic the- 
ology, notwithstanding he was over forty years 
of age. 

He was approbated as a preacher of the gospel 
by the Suffolk South Association, in May, 1858, 
and sustained a highly creditable examination. 

At his ordination in Danielsonville, I addressed 
to- him these among other words : " In obedience 
to the summons of our Lord, you have left a 
lucrative secular position ; you leave pleasant 
neighborhood surroundings ; you leave a church 
that will never cease to regret your removal from 
its immediate membership, though rejoicing in 
your call to the sacred office. Between you and 



WILLIAM IF". DAVENPORT. 



49 



myself there are ties of tender Christian endear- 
ment, cemented by many years of intimate fellow- 
ship. To-morrow a trembling hand will be 
obliged to erase one cherished name from the 
parochial list in a distant city. To-day the Faith- 
ful Witness, the Prince of the kings of the earth, 
lays upon you a hand that never trembles, say- 
ing, r Fear not: I am the first and the last; lo, 
I am with you.'" 

It is not easy for me now to refrain from 
enlarging upon my affection and esteem for this 
deceased brother and friend. 



Very truly yours, 

A. C. Thompson, 




The Sabbath following the announcement of the death of 
Rev. W. W. Davenport, a Commemorative Discourse was 
preached to the people of his former charge, West Killingly, 
Connecticut, by the pastor, Rev. J. Taylor, D.D. 

" Sorrowing most of all for the Words which 
He spake that they should see His Face no 
more." — Acts xx. 38. 

\Ext?'act from that Discourse.] 

HPHERE has come to us through the channels 
of the great deep, but just now, the solemn, 
suggestive message, that the face so inexpres- 
sibly dear to many of you has been for ever 
withdrawn, and so there is gloom in our hearts 
and pallor on our faces this day. How subdued, 
hushed, become the warm emotions of this 
hallowed hour and sacred service, as the knell 
strikes on the ear, "The Rev. W. W. Daven- 
port is dead." Sundered for ever now those 
earthly ties which once bound him to this place, 
and to the people of his late and only pastoral 
charge ! 



WILLIAM W. DAVENPORT. 



Si 



I need not tell how strongly his love lingered 
here, though his body was far removed. These 
fields and skies, these hills and dales, these 
gardens, birds, and flowers, were all sacred to 
him, as the familiar objects that greeted his eye 
while prosecuting the labors of his holy calling : 
sweet tokens all were they of the nearness of 
that Zion's sacred abode where his best friends, 
his kindred, dwelt; whose very stones were 
precious in his sight. 

Your late pastor was admonished, by failing 
health and the best medical counsel, that his end 
was near, if he could not find, by a sea voyage 
and sojourn in foreign parts, that relief from 
disease which was denied him through other 
agencies. 

In the south of France, near the line which 
divides it from Spain, about sixty miles from 
the sea where the blue waters round out into the 
Bay of Biscay, is situated the town of Pau, on 
the right bank of a river of considerable size, 
which is crossed at that point by a bridge with 
seven arches, and remarkable for its great eleva- 
tion ; lying within the shadow of the Pyrenees, 
and commanding a view of much that is beautiful 



5 2 



MEMORIAL OF 



and cultivated in Art, as well as grand and 
picturesque in nature. It has for many years 
been a favorite resort of foreigners, and invalids 
in pursuit of health. 

To this inviting sanatory retreat Mr. Davenport 
hastened, in compliance with advice given him 
on reaching England, patiently abiding the 
Divine will. He died there last Thursday, and 
so — 

" He's gone the way among the spheres 
To where the throne appears ; 

He lives amid seraphic scenes 
Upon the heavenly plains," — 

where the inhabitants shall no more say, I am 
sick. 

Of his eminent Christian character there is 
room for only one opinion to exist. He was a 
man of God, thoroughly consecrated to duty and 
usefulness. He loved the distinctive, pure doc- 
trines of grace, not only as a system of truth 
clearly revealing Christ and redemption, but as 
the precious way of life and salvation for himself. 

His loyalty to Christ was prominent every- 



WILLIAM W. DAVENPORT. 



53 



where, in his life, walk, and conversation. Had 
he lived in the old days of persecution, he 
would have gone to the stake as readily for his 
faith in Jesus, if need be, as to.the house of his 
friend for the social repast. 

He enjoyed the pastoral work here with the 
intensity of a first and only love, and in its 
earnest prosecution left everywhere the abiding 
conviction that he was an "Israelite indeed, in 
whom there was no guile." 

You who enjoyed his ministry for so many 
years, and knew well his manner of life, will 
greatly sorrow that you shall see his face no 
more. His prayers for you have ended. His 
last words have been spoken. 

The providence of his removal is a solemnly 
suggestive one to us all. 

To those who heard the message from his lips, 
and were led to Christ through his instrumen- 
tality, how tender the remembrance of him in 
such relationships ! To many of you he was the 
son of consolation in the season of great sorrow. 
Precious memories of the man and scene survive 
to-day. 

Many heard his words of faithful warning, but 

5* 



54 



MEMORIAL OF WILLIAM W. DAVENPORT. 



did not believe. How will you meet him at the 
bar of God ? 

To me, who have entered info his labors, the 
solemn Providence is saying, — " Work while it 
is day : the night cometh." 

We cast our wreath of love upon his lifeless 
body and veiled face, though sleeping so far 
away. Mid sobs and tears we say, Farewell, 
friend, brother: we hope, when the battle of life 
is over and the victory is won, to meet thee again 
on the fields of glorious eternity. 

We hope to come where thou art now gone, — 
to the invisible kingdom, to the glory complete, 
to Christ, the all in all : till then adieu. 

" Home at last, home at last, 
No more to roam." 




The following minute was adopted by the Windham 
Association of Ministers, at their annual meeting, June, 
1870: — 



\\ 7"E have received with profound sorrow the 
news of the death of our brother in the 
ministry, Rev. W. W. Davenport. We grieve 
that the church below could receive his labors 
only for so short a time. But God has shown 
that it is his will that our brother should serve 
him above, and his will is best. We reverently 
and humbly submit to him. 

We hold in tender remembrance the cordial 
affection, the genial sympathy, which Brother 
Davenport always manifested in his intercourse 
with the brethren, and desire to record our hearty 
esteem for him as a man and a minister. 

He was remarkable for his fervent piety and 
devotion to the Master, for his ready acquiescence 



56 MEMORIAL OF 



to what he deemed the will of God, and for his 
unflinch.ng fidelity to principle. He was a 
laborious and faithful pastor, aiming to give the 
best his mind and heart and strength could afford 
to his Lord's work. 

Upon the church and people for whom he 
ministered, upon his brethren in the ministry, 
upon all with whom he came much in contact, 
the memory of his integrity, his purity of life, his 
kindliness, his love of Christ, will long remain as 
a grateful recollection. To such a character, 
Mr. Davenport united a logical and thoughtful 
mind, a broad and thorough knowledge of such 
matters as pertained to his work, great care and 
diligence in his preparation for his duties as a 
preacher. 

By his devotedness and conscientiousness in 
his profession, he enfeebled a frame not naturally 
vigorous ; and the worn body yielded to the 
demands made upon it by the too willing spirit. 

He died in a strange land ; but his soul, ever 
dwelling near his God, found as short a passage 
home, as if it had ascended from his native 
shores. We rejoice that the summons found him 



WILLIAM W. DAVENPORT. 



57 



as ready to bow cheerfully to the will of his 
Master as any event of his life. 

We tender our heartfelt sympathies to his son, 
and the other relatives, who are mourning the 
departure of one so excellent in every relation of 
life. 





Shortly before Mr. Davenport left for Europe, some of 
his former parishioners requested the publication of his last 
two sermons, to which he assented, when he should have 
revised them. Just before his death, he spoke in a letter of 
being at work upon them ; and when his papers came to 
this country, they were found copied upon thin paper, 
and folded ready for transmission by mail. The revision 
of these sermons was probably his last literary work upon 
earth. 



HOW TO DEAL IN THE TRUTH. 



"Buy the Truth, and sell it not." — Prov. xxiii. 23, f.c. 

r I ^HE aim of the Book of Proverbs, as indi- 
cated at its beginning, coincides with the 
manifest design of the whole volume of Script- 
ure : to teach men the fear of the Lord, and the 
knowledge of God, — to teach them to fear him as 
the God of supreme authority and. rule, and to 
know him as the God of infinite wisdom and 
truth. His commands have full authority", and 
are to be obeyed : his counsels are wise and true, 
and are to be trusted and followed. A large part 
of the Book of Proverbs is made up of such 
counsels, which have the binding force of posi- 
tive commands. The text is of this character. 
Here is counsel which is equivalent to command : 



60 MEMORIAL OF 



not only wise, but authoritative. The figure 
under which it is couched is that of trading. 
We therefore conclude that gain is to be had by 
right dealing in the commodity named. There 
are many maxims in this book designed to guide 
men in the principles of worldly business, but 
this is in some respects peculiar. It speaks of a 
commodity which is peculiar as an object of trade ; 
and the directions given, as far as they go, are 
definite and positive, and laid down upon the 
sole responsibility of Him who is the Author of 
that commodity, who knows it thoroughly, — its 
nature, its value, its effects, — and the right way 
to make the largest gain by dealing in it. Here, 
then, is instruction in spiritual trading. God 
condescends to be our teacher in this department 
of the business of our lives ; and it is certain that 
our prosperity depends upon a careful following 
of the directions given. Let me endeavor, then, 
to guide you to a right comprehension of these 
directions, as we consider, — 

I. What is the commodity referred to; and 

II. How you are to deal in it. 

We shall then be able to apply it practically 
to ourselves. 



WILLIAM W. DAVENPORT. fij 

I. What is the commodity referred to f " Buy 
the truth" 

The articles in which men deal are as numer- 
ous and as various as human wants and human 
fancies. Whatever the preservation of life and 
health demands, whatever comfort requires, what- 
ever appetite craves, whatever will gratify the love 
of amusement, or minister to pride and vanity, — 
all find a place in the shops, and abundance of 
purchasers. But here is a commodity which you 
never find in the merchant's invoices, nor speci- 
fied in his most comprehensive advertisements, 
nor exhibited in his windows. No importer in- 
cludes it in his orders from abroad : no manu- 
facturer produces it at home. It is of divine 
origin : it bears the exclusive trade-mark of 
heaven, — "Thus saith the Lord;" and it shows 
the characteristics of its origin in its purity and 
perfectness and durability. 

But what are its constituent elements? We 
learn them in the volume whose name is The 
Truth ; on whose pages are found the commenda- 
tion of truth ; which reveals Him who is the em- 
bodiment of the truth. Here we may find what 

6 



MEMORIAL OF 



that comprehensive thing is which divine wisdom 
counsels us to buy. 

Truth in the form of doctrine is one of its 
elements. God himself furnishes this element 
by express revelation. He has declared what 
we are to believe respecting him, which other- 
wise we could not have known ; concerning our 
state and relation to him ; concerning the way 
of life and salvation for sinners ; and concerning 
the retributions of the future world. In this rev- 
elation he has embraced every thing important for 
us to know and believe, and nothing superfluous. 
This form of truth, depending directly upon the 
testimony of God, is the foundation of all genu- 
ine religion. Whatever, bearing the name of 
religion, lacks any thing essential to this, is im- 
perfect ; and whatever contradicts it is spurious 
and false. This is the first element. Whatever 
God has revealed in his Word to be believed and 
accepted by men is true. 

Another element is truth in the way of per- 
sonal experience. The things which God has re- 
vealed are such as take hold of the very springs 
of spiritual life. They are fitted to mould our 
thoughts and feelings : they appeal to our inner- 



WILLIAM W. DAVENPORT. 



63 



most dispositions and preferences, and tastes and 
affections. Not by their own inherent power, 
but by the power of the Holy Spirit accompany- 
ing them, they act decisively on these fountains 
of the spiritual life, in every case of genuine 
renewal. They are the instruments which the 
Holy Spirit uses in all his efficacious working 
upon the hearts of men, when he makes them 
new creatures in Christ. He first enables them 
to see these truths by his enlightening influences ; 
and then he applies his regenerating power, so 
that they embrace them with the heart, and love 
them as the truth. This experience of the truth 
which God reveals, this yielding up the soul to it 
and resting upon it, — especially that of redemp- 
tion by an atoning Saviour, — is an essential ele- 
ment in the truth I am endeavoring to analyze. 
It is only by this experience that any man can 
say : "Whereas I was blind, now I see." — "Old 
things are passed away : behold all things are 
become new." It is truth* experienced, in the 
possession and consciousness of its transforming 
effect upon the heart. 

Still another element is truth hi its -practical 
effects. This is what our Lord refers to as " doing 



64 MEMORIAL OF 



the truth." It is the adoption of its principles, as 
the rule by which the whole life, inward and out- 
ward, shall be governed. First of all, it is a 
careful regard to the sacredness of truth in gen- 
eral ; that is, sincerity of heart; "truth in the in- 
ward part ; " as opposed to all deception practised 
on ourselves or others, and to hypocrisy in every 
form and degree ; and as opposed to all easy in- 
difference about maintaining the truth. Then it 
includes the careful shaping of the life just as 
truth, in its wide scope, requires, — following out 
and acting upon all the necessary inferences from 
every part of that truth ; that is, fidelity to it in 
personal holy living, and careful growth in grace. 
Then it includes maintaining and defending that 
truth, in its principles and its practice, against all 
that would contravene it. In short, this element 
is an ardent love of the truth, which shows itself 
practically in all possible ways : unyielding fidel- 
ity to it in every word and action of the life. 

The commodity we are here counselled and 
commanded to buy has all these essential ele- 
ments : truth in the way of doctrine, in the way 
of experience, and in the way of practice. That 
is, it is holy -principle in the understanding, the 



WILLIAM W. DAVENPORT. 



65 



heart, and the life. It is the sum of principles 
which God has set forth for the direction of men, 
to enlighten, renew, and govern them. It is the 
manifestation of God to men, in what he teaches 
them for their believing acceptance ; in his power 
transforming them into his own image ; and in 
the production of a courageous and holy fidelity 
in the life. Thus it furnishes a name to the most 
essential thing for man in his relation to God as a 
subject of his government. 

We are prepared, then, to consider, 
II. How you are to deal in the truth. 
1. Buy it. Not that any one can purchase the 
truth by the payment of an adequate price. In- 
deed, God's mode of trading with men in the dis- 
pensation of his grace is wholly peculiar. He 
invites us to buy, without money and without 
price, the precious things of his gospel. They 
are all, so far as he is concerned in the transac- 
tion, free gifts ; and if they were not, man, 
spiritually bankrupt, could not buy them. Nei- 
ther money nor good works can be received in 
payment : and if they could, who has gold enough 
to set in the scale against these priceless treas- 
ures ? or who has good works with which to 

6* 



66 MEMORIAL OF 



merit them ? And yet there is manifestly a price 
which every man must pay who buys the truth. 
It is the full surrender of himself — all he has, 
and is, and hopes to be — to the will and service 
of the Author of truth. This is absolutely neces- 
sary. Without it, no man acquires the truth in 
its full scope. 

Still, this is not of the nature of an equivalent 
paid for it. The force of the word " buy " is to 
give greater emphasis to the counsel and com- 
mand to get the truth. You are bidden to get this 
holy principle at any cost, to make it your own 
at all hazards. Whatever else you let go, what- 
ever else you must sacrifice for the sake of it, 
this truth you are commanded to possess. 

You must gain the knowledge of it in the 
understanding ; must know enough of what is 
vital in God's revelation of truth, to bring you 
into a right attitude toward him, and to be effec- 
tive in the whole structure of your character. 

You are, at any cost, to get the experience of 
its transforming, guiding, controlling, and sancti- 
fying power. Nothing else, as an instrument, 
renews the heart ; nothing else is a trustworthy 
guide ; nothing else so holds the impulses of the 



WILLIAM IV. DAVENPORT. 



67 



soul in a calm and steady adherence to what is 
right and wise. And only the truth sanctifies. 
For this instrumentality our Lord prayed in his 
last devotions with his disciples : "Sanctify them 
through thy truth : thy word is truth." 

And you are to acquire that absorbing love of 
the truth which will render it the governing rule 
of your practice ; which will enlist you as its con- 
servators and defenders whenever it is imperilled ; 
which will make you its unflinching adherents, 
no matter who or what may oppose. 

With all this earnestness and comprehensive- 
ness of purpose, you are to get the truth ; to seek 
for it as silver, and search for it as for hid 
treasure ; to pursue it with the utmost ardor ; to 
embrace it so fully that you may be known, not 
only as possessing the truth, but as thoroughly 
possessed by it ; so that you may be conscious of 
a perpetual influence from the truth, as the voice 
of God, admonishing, approving, animating, and 
guiding you- 

2. Keef it. The divine direction is specific: 
" Sell it not" This commodity brings no profit 
by parting with it. He who has it is never to 
offer it for sale, nor to accept any bid for it, how- 



68 MEMORIAL OF 



ever large. As you have not the means to pay 
an adequate price for it, so no one else is able to 
offer you its equivalent. Notwithstanding every 
inducement or temptation to part with it, you are 
to keefi it, to cling to it, to prize this holy princi- 
ple above all human values. The figures of the 
price-current are wholly inadequate to express its 
worth. There is indeed no possibility of trans- 
ferring it to another. It can be sold only by be- 
traying it ; and he who does this allies himself 
to the one who sold its divine and living embodi- 
ment for thirty pieces of silver. 

But there are those who fail to keep it as the 
text requires, through under-estimating its impor- 
tance, or through self-confidence, or the want of 
watchful care. There is one most active and 
vigilant enemy, who will defraud you of it if he 
can ; will tempt you to part with it, or at least to 
hold it loosely. Nothing to which man can cling 
so baffles his evil designs, and so excites his rage 
and malice, as this same comprehensive truth. 
If he can persuade a Christian to surrender it, he 
has him at his mercy ; if he can persuade a 
church to part with it, its foundations are under- 
mined, and its efficiency for good destroyed. It 



WILLIAM W. DAVENPORT. 



6 9 



is the duty of every one, then, to guard this 
priceless possession with jealous care ; to cherish 
it; to keep it as carefully as the precious life. 
For it ts the life of the soul ; it is the basis of all 
vigorous and effective and staple piety ; it is the 
bulwark of the cause of Christ in the world. 
When this is sold, or suffered to slip from the 
grasp, the heart keeps open door for every form 
of error in doctrine and in practice ; the church 
degenerates and becomes torpid, and the sacred 
interests of vital godliness suffer eclipse. To 
keep it is as needful as to buy it. 

But, 3. Use it. Otherwise you cannot keep it. 
It vanishes — it dies — through disuse. There is 
no important principle which will not relax its 
hold upon the conscience, if it be set aside as a 
basis or rule of action. Let truth be slighted in 
this way, and it will soon lose its value in your 
esteem, and become of no more practical account 
or binding authority with you than error. In this 
trading, the special peculiarity is, that we act 
upon the counsel and command of the Author of 
truth and the Source of wisdom ; and that all the 
gain is by our own use of the commodity. To 
neglect using it is to be no wiser than the manu- 



7o 



MEMORIAL OF 



facturer who shuts down the gate, and lets the 
stream flow idly by, while wheel and spindle and 
every other machine are adjusted for their work. 

The truth is to be used in accordance with its 
nature and adaptations, and agreeably to the 
command of Jts Author. It is designed to be the 
guide of all action. It should be appealed to in 
the formation of every plan, secular or sacred. 
But, especially, it should be the constant standard 
and test of every thing which is religious in its 
character. Says the apostle Paul : " We can do 
nothing against the truth, but for the truth." The 
admixture of error with the truth, in however 
small a proportion, is detrimental to its effect; 
while the substitution of error for it is ruinous. 

The truth, appropriately used, has these effects : 
first of all, to settle the mind in the great princi- 
ples of doctrine ; then to win the heart to a 
cordial embrace of them ; then to become the 
exclusive guide to personal holy living ; then to 
incite to the propagation of the same truth, for 
the sake of its own excellence and for the good 
of men ; and, last of all, to nerve mind and heart 
to maintain and defend that truth, in all its prac- 
tical relations. 



WILLIAM W. DAVENPORT. 



71 



In the administration of every thing of a relig- 
ious kind, the truth in its comprehensive form (in 
the sense of holy -principle drawn from the oracles 
of truth) should have precedence of all else as a 
guide and rule ; should stand before expediency 
and taste, and philosophy and custom, and hu- 
man prescription and policy, and whatever else 
may assume to lead in promoting the cause of 
Christ or the good of men. Our first question, 
though asked in a different spirit and from another 
motive, should resemble Pilate's: "What is 
truth?" — What does the word and will of God 
dictate? From a candid and honest answer to 
this question, no man has the privilege of appeal. 
When he knows it, he is tender imperative obliga- 
tion to do it. 

These three things comprise the right mode of 
dealing in that comprehensive, holy principle 
which the text designates as the truth: Buy it; 
Keep it; Use it. Buy it at any cost; Keep it at 
all hazards, in spite of every effort to take it 
from you ; Use it with conscientious fidelity, for 
your own good, for the good of others, and for 
the honor of its great Author. 

Permit me now to give to this subject its prac- 



72 



MEMORIAL OF 



tical application to yourselves. Let me first ad- 
dress those who have not yet embraced the truth 
in their own experience. Dear unconverted 
friends, many of you are acquainted with the 
truth so far as its vital doctrines are concerned ; 
and these you accept with the intellect. But you 
have not yet possessed yourselves of it in a per- 
sonal experience of its renewing and saving 
power. In bondage to sin by nature, the truth 
has not yet made you free, though it is God's 
appointed instrument to that needful end, and you 
have had freest access to it. Your case is both 
guilty and sad. The responsibility of slighting 
the truth is your own ; and the consequences, if 
you continue to slight it, will be unspeakably 
dreadful. Let me then most earnestly and tender- 
ly exhort you to heed the counsel and command 
of the text; and, first of all, Buy the truth. Get 
it at the cost of any thing and every thing earthly ; 
though it should be needful to forsake father and 
mother, and wife and children, and all that you 
have, and then to lay down life itself, to possess 
it. This is the pearl of great price : the truth in 
its renewing and saving efficacy, — the truth, by 
the power of the Holy Spirit creating you anew 



WILLIAM W. DAVENPORT. 



73 



in Christ Jesus. You are spiritually poor, but 
come and buy ! Jesus Christ himself, the Author 
of truth, stands at the mart with a full supply, 
which he is ready to dispense freely to those who 
need it so urgently. Come, " buy the truth ; " and, 
having gained it, sell it not, even though the 
whole world were offered for it. " For what shall 
it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world, 
and lose his own soul ? " And this is the alterna- 
tive : sell the truth and you sell your soul. Oh, 
be persuaded, beloved friends, to hear and heed 
the message which counsels you with divine wis- 
dom, and buy and kcef the truth. Having once 
truly embraced it, if you keep it, the truth will 
keep you, till the great day when Christ shall 
own all who have kept the truth as his, and ap- 
point them a place with him for ever. Oh, " buy 
the truth, and sell it not." 

Beloved Christian friends, who profess that you 
have acquired the truth in its saving power, — with 
equal earnestness, and in the name of our common 
Lord and Master, I exhort you to keep that truth 
within your hearts, to guard it most sacredly as 
the foundation of your piety ; and to act upon it 
in all your conduct, for an illustration of the real 

7 



74 



MEMORIAL OF 



fruits of the sanctifying and saving grace of God 
in Christ. Commend yourselves and the truth at 
once, in the eyes of an ungodly world and of 
imperfect Christians. Keep the truth, and use it 
diligently and faithfully, that you may be the 
living epistle of God, known and read of all 
men; and that, being faithful unto death, you 
may at length receive a crown of life. 

But my most earnest and affectionate exhorta- 
tion is to this beloved church of Christ, in its 
organic capacity, as well as in its individual mem- 
bership. No pastor can ordinarily leave a people 
with whom he has been connected for years, and 
for whom he has borne weighty responsibilities, 
without more or less of solicitude respecting their 
future course. In this church, as in any other 
similarly situated, each private member will now 
especially share in the responsibility for its wel- 
fare in coming days. Permit me then to exhort 
you individually and collectively, — with reference 
to this important interest, — "Buy the truth, and 
sell it not." You are all supposed to have em- 
braced the truth, intellectually and experimen- 
tally, and to own your obligation to keep it and 
use it practically. But remember that the acqui- 



WILLIAM W. DAVENPORT. 



75 



sition of truth in this broad sense may and should 
go on indefinitely. You may gain increased 
knowledge of it, and may also grow in loving 
and trustful appreciation of it, day by day and 
year by year. But in whatever degree you may 
now be, or may in future become, possessed of 
the truth, I exhort you to keep and use it ; firmly 
to adhere to and maintain every principle which 
belongs to it. 

First of all, hold firmly to the binding author- 
ity of the truth. Let this never be surrendered. 
Make it a part of your creed that the explicit 
teachings and the clear principles of the Word of 
God are an infallible standard in respect to faith 
and practice. Whenever you can appeal to such 
directions in this volume, every other standard 
should yield to it. No custom or rule of man's 
proposing, no argument, no analogy, no supposed 
expediency, no dictum of any kind, should be 
allowed to contravene what is required or sanc- 
tioned by the Author of truth. 

Again, see to it, dear friends, that this church 
does not swerve from sound doctrine. This is 
fundamental to the prosperity of a church. Just 
what the Word of God teaches for doctrine, and 



7 6 



MEMORIAL OF 



nothing else, should be held firmly by each mem- 
ber. You should be most solicitous to draw from 
the sacred oracles only what the Holy Spirit 
intended to teach in them, and prayerful in your 
study of them, that you may receive no error into 
your minds. You are required by the book of 
truth to " contend earnestly for the faith once de- 
livered to the saints." This indicates that great 
sensitiveness to the purity and integrity of doc- 
trine is in entire accordance with the will of God. 
Error must be resisted. To admit it knowingly 
to this pulpit, or to sanction it in the membership 
of the church, is to sell the truth. Tenderness 
toward vital error is treachery toward the truth 
and its Author. To be silent, to acquiesce, when 
the essential doctrines of grace are assailed or 
set aside, is to be accessory to the introduction 
of error. The peaceable progress of false doc- 
trine in its membership, or the unresisted preach- 
ing of such doctrine in its pulpit, is one of the 
darkest signs which can appear in a church. 

And, once more, keep to a Scriptural -practice 
in this church. Let me exhort each member for 
himself, and the whole body for all the members, 
to strive earnestly after holy living, as required 



WILLIAM W. DAVENPORT. 



11 



by our "Master and Lord," and as the only con- 
clusive evidence .of genuine piety. Cherish in 
your hearts all the graces of the Holy Spirit, as 
the hidden germs out of which the visible graces 
of the Christian life will be evolved. And let it 
be well understood that conformity to the world, 
in professors of religion, is distinctly recognized 
as contrary to the solemn covenant which each 
member of this church adopts ; and that, in those 
who have adopted it, such worldly conformity is 
a clear breach of their deliberate engagement. 
I entreat that you maintain a high standard of 
Christian practice in personal and family religion, 
and in the sphere of church fellowship ; and that 
in all things there may be among you such a 
keeping and using and following of the truth, as 
will make you an example to all around, — a 
model, approaching such perfection as is possible 
on earth ; to which it will be safe to point other 
churches for their imitation. 

It may be thought by some that these sug- 
gestions are needless ; that this church is safe in 
all these and similar respects. But I cannot but 
deem them very needful. If there is not degen- 
eracy and growing laxness in doctrine among the 



tj 8 MEMORIAL OF 



churches of every evangelical name ; if there is 
not a fearful increase of worldliness in practice, 
and defence of it among those who profess better 
things ; if there is not timidity and sinful yielding 
of holy principle for the sake of peace, by both 
ministry and laity ; and if the foundations and 
the superstructure of evangelical piety are not 
endangered by all these, — then I have no skill to 
read aright the signs of the times. There is peril 
in these respects. Even peace, purchased at the 
expense of essential truth, doctrinal or practical, 
is too dearly bought. "Love the truth and peace," 
says the prophet Zechariah. Truth first, then 
peace. Precious as the latter is, the former is far 
more so. 

" Buy the truth" then ; and, dear friends, * sell 
it not;" never part with one iota of holy principle, 
let the temptation come from within or without, 
from whatsoever quarter it may ; but stand firm 
against every sacrifice of the truth, and every 
compromise with error, doctrinal or practical. 
Let this church be so firmly anchored upon 
the truth, built up in it, identified with it, that 
no waves, however tumultuous, may move it ; 
that it may never be "tossed to and fro, and 



WILLIAM W. DAVENPORT. 



79 



carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the 
sleight of men and cunning craftiness, whereby 
they lie in wait to deceive ; " but being rooted 
and built up in Christ, and established in the 
faith, may illustrate the divine excellence of the 
truth by whose power it is kept ; while others 
may be moved from their foundations, to the 
reproach of the truth, and their own dishonor 
and loss. 




FAREWELL. 



"Finally, Brethren, farewell. Be Perfect, be of 
Good Comfort, be of One Mind, live in Peace ; 
and the God of Love and Peace shall be with 
you." — 2 Cor. xiii. n. 

TT would seem to have been the Holy Spirit's 
intention that the inspired volume should con- 
tain passages exactly suited to every occasion to 
which religious observances would be appropri- 
ate. There are no exigencies of the church for 
which we may not find suitable words of counsel 
and direction, or of comfort and encouragement; 
no events in the lives of individuals, for which 
these sacred pages will not furnish what is fitting. 
When a pastor addresses his own flock for the 
first time, this book offers the right message for 
his lips ; and when he is called to part from them, 
it joins to his tender farewell the counsels and 
promises which they then specially need. To- 



WILLIAM W. DAVENPORT. Si 

day, in the all-wise providence of God, I address 
you for the last time as the pastor of this flock ; 
and during the present week the relation which 
has bound us together for seven years will cease. 
Permit me, then, to take an affectionate leave of 
you now, in these words of the apostle Paul, which 
seem so fitly to express at once the desires of my 
own heart for you, and the inspired counsels which 
are appropriate to your case. " Finally, brethren, 
farewell. Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of 
one mind, live in peace ; and the God of love 
and peace shall be with you." 

Notice and weigh, first, his counsels. 

"Be -perfect" As individuals, be perfect. 
This is the unrepealed requirement of the holy 
law, and the great practical aim of the gospel. 
The former permits no departure from that holi- 
ness of which God himself is the spotless pattern. 
It condemns every thing in disposition or act 
which is contrary to it ; while it requires such a 
hearty consent of the affections to holiness, as 
will secure the subject in unbroken conformity 
thereto. The latter (the gospel) opens the 
channel for the reception of that grace by which 
alone lost man can ever become perfect; gives 



82 MEMORIAL OF 



us a pattern of human perfection in the life of the 
incarnate Son of God ; and supplies the most 
powerful of motives for its attainment. However 
hopeless the attainment of absolute perfection in 
this life, no one is free from the obligation to fol- 
low it ; and no one can be truly happy who does 
not make some advance in the pursuit. 

As a church, too, be perfect. Let every thing 
in the arrangement and administration of your 
affairs be as near the true model, — as near in- 
spired directions, — as human effort, aided by 
grace from above, can possibly approach. See 
that you keep this church pure, in doctrine and 
in practice. See that you grow in the strength 
of holy principle ; that among you the truth be- 
comes a bulwark to guard and protect the sacred 
cause of Christ from injury and from reproach. 
Let each one know his own duty in the church, 
and be ready to perform it, humbly but boldly, in 
the strength of his Master ; and thus make this 
church a guide and helper to all the churches 
around. 

Again, " Be of good comfort ; ." Does the duty 
previously enjoined seem arduous? Is it discour- 
aging to have it laid so heavily upon your con- 



WILLIAM W. DAVENPORT. 



8.3 



sciences? Do all the cares and duties of the 
Christian life, and the responsibilities of church 
relationship, form a burden which makes your 
hearts sink? Then look at the sources of com- 
fort opened to you in the sacred oracles of God, 
and in the experience of your past lives ; look at 
the covenant promises of God, at the sacred and 
tender pledges of your dying Saviour and living 
Head ; hear the assurances of his unintermitted 
presence with you, in the path of faithful adher- 
ence to him and his commands ; weigh the pre- 
cious import of this one declaration, "My grace 
is sufficient for thee," and let your trembling 
hearts be still. Let your souls be nerved to holy 
resolution, and calmed to sweetest comfort, trust- 
ing in him ; " for he hath said, I will never leave 
thee nor forsake thee ; " " so that we may boldly 
say, The Lord is my helper, I will not fear." 

"Furthermore, " Be of one mind" Not that all 
differences of opinion on every topic are to be 
debarred or eradicated ; but that the minds of all 
should be set supremely in one direction, and on 
one object of desire, — the glory of God as it is 
promoted in the salvation of sinners, the edifica- 
tion of believers, and the perfecting o"f the church. 



84 MEMORIAL OF 



Let me affectionately charge you to put far away 
the spirit of discord, with every thing that might 
open the door to its return and entrance. For " if 
ye bite and devour one another, take heed that 
ye be not consumed one of another." The spirit 
of unity is essential to the healthful life of the 
church, and essential to the abiding presence of 
the divine Spirit of holiness. 

Once more, "Live in -peace" This is the 
natural and certain fruit of that unity of mind 
w r hich has just been inculcated. It is within your 
reach. If it be carefully and prayerfully sought, 
you may enjoy it. To cherish the atmosphere of 
peace, which is both your duty and your interest, 
as Christians and as a church, will stamp all 
needless contention with its true character, and 
make its features repulsive to all who love Zion 
and pray for the peace of Jerusalem. 

Then, — the apostle's words of comfort assure 
you, — then "the God of love and -peace shall be 
with you" This includes every blessing worthy 
to be desired, while without it you are exposed 
to evils most profoundly to be deprecated. If the 
God of love be absent, then hatred may prevail, 
even among those who call themselves his people. 



WILLIAM W. DAVENPORT. 



85 



If the God of peace be a stranger, then farewell 
to the hope of spiritual prosperity in this church. 
But if he be with you, attracted by your earnest 
and persevering endeavors to prepare your 
hearts for his entertainment, then with what 
delight will he make this church his dwelling ! 
with what benignity will he smile on every true 
seeker after his favor ! with what fulness of bless- 
ing will his gracious benediction gently descend 
upon your heads and hearts ! how it will pene- 
trate your closets with the flowing stream of his 
own peace ; gladden your homes and family 
altars ; and go with you to the place of social 
fellowship, tuning your lips to solemn mirth as 
you sing his praises ; and abide around you when 
your glad feet stand within the gates of his sanc- 
tuary ! Happy, thrice happy, that people with 
whom the God of love and peace abides ! How 
strong that church which his own hand binds 
together with intertwining cords of sacred peace, 
and mutual, holy love !-. 

Dear friends, if I were sure you would regard 
these counsels, so as to realize the delightful 
assurance with which they close, it would be with 
no less sensibility to the pain of parting, but with 



86 MEMORIAL OF 



far less solicitude for your future welfare, that I 
now speak the remaining word of the text, 
"Farewell," — the first as written by the pen of 
the apostle, the last to come from these shrinking 
lips ; for it is the token of approaching separation 
from a church and congregation who have been 
the objects of my pastoral love and care for the 
last seven years. You will not wonder that the 
utterance of that word, and the retrospect of 
the years of this sacred relation, should awaken 
lively memories of the most tender and touching 
nature, should call up before a pastor's mind 
most affecting experiences, and vivid pictures of 
the scenes in which he has been a participant ; 
and that the remembrance of joys and sorrows in 
which he has shared should fill his lips with 
trembling when he speaks of them. 

It is natural and suitable to look back at some 
of the facts and events that mark the years of 
this pastorate. 

At the beginning of 1861, the- }*ear of my set- 
tlement over you, sixteen of the twenty-eight 
Congregational churches of Windham County 
Consociation had pastors. The termination of 
my relation to you will leave only nine pastors 



WILLIAM W. DAVENPORT. §7 

within its bounds. While this is a much smaller 
proportion than the other counties of the State 
exhibit, it reminds us that there is a falling oft in 
the permanence of the pastoral relation, which 
bodes no good to the interests of stable and true 
religion. So far as possible, this tendency should 
be resisted, as thoughtful and judicious Christians 
are generally ready to confess. Only four of the 
remaining pastorates are longer than my own., 

By the favor of a kind Providence, I have not, 
in these seven years, been prevented by disability 
from occupying the pulpit and preaching, except 
for a part of our annual vacation ; nor has this 
house been closed nor this pulpit silent on one of 
the Sabbaths of this period. 

During my pastorate I have officiated at fifty- 
five weddings, and one hundred and thirty-two 
funerals ; having been called upon for both these 
kinds of service by many who were not members 
of this flock. 

There have been received to this church in 
the same time, by letter from other churches, 
thirty -two ; and, on profession of faith, thirty-six. 
Sixty-nine have been dismissed to other churches, 
and forty-four have been recorded as deceased, 



88 MEMORIAL OF 



though in a few instances the true date of death 
was earlier. The number of present members is 
three hundred and thirteen. A large part of 
those dismissed to other churches had long re- 
sided elsewhere, but had delayed removing their 
church relation. Seventeen adults have been 
baptized upon admission to this church, and 
twenty-one infants have been presented by their 
parents for the same ordinance. 

The Sabbath school interest has flourished 
among us, three branch schools having been sus- 
tained a large part of the time, in addition to the 
one immediately connected with the church. The 
aggregate membership of all, on the first of Janu- 
ary of this year, was four hundred and twenty- 
three. 

It is proper to add also, that, in the seven cal- 
endar years ending with 1867, this church and 
congregation have contributed to objects of strictly 
religious benevolence, exclusive of all given for 
our Sabbath school and other work at home, the 
sum of $4,613.34, besides some contributions 
which did not pass through the treasury of this 
church. The aggregate contributions of the year 
1861 were $301.07 ; and of 1867, $923.42 ; each 



WILLIAM W. DAVENPORT. 



89 



year showing an advance upon that which pre- 
ceded it, beginning with an average of $1.01 to 
each resident member, and increasing to an aver- 
age of $3.36 per member. In the same term of 
years the annual income of the Ecclesiastical 
Society, from the rental of slips, increased more 
than $400.00 ; while indebtedness to the amount 
of $3,780.00 has been cancelled by subscription. 
These facts are named, as having more or less 
importance in the history of the church and 
society during the period under review. What- 
ever may properly be counted as prosperity should 
be gratefully ascribed to the special favor of Him 
from whom all prosperity comes. It should lead 
this church to a firmer reliance upon his covenant 
love and faithfulness, and a holier courage to 
attempt yet larger advances in the years to come. 
But I turn to speak of the pleasant and happy 
relations and experiences which come like a 
countless throng before my memory. Whatever 
exceptions, personal or otherwise, there may 
have been, let them all be forgotten to-day. It 
would, indeed, seem like affectation to pass by 
the difficulties and troubles of recent months 
wholly without allusion ; but it is at least my 

8* 



9° 



MEMORIAL OF 



privilege not to dwell upon them. There are 
certain paintings, which, by a device of the artist, 
are made to present two or more different aspects, 
according to the point from which they are 
viewed. From one side they may exhibit an 
object which is forbidding, and from the other, 
one that is pleasing. Let us stand at the latter 
point to-da}s and, if possible, never again look 
upon the other view. 

These few exceptions now laid aside and dis- 
missed, I have occasion to record, with devout 
gratitude to the Master, that my relations to and 
intercourse with this people have been the source 
of greater joy to my heart than any previous 
experiences of friendship and affection. I shall 
not forget, while the powers of my mind remain, 
the loving reception given me at my coming, — 
the heartiness of respect and the warmth of affec- 
tion then manifested. I cannot forget the cordial 
welcome extended to me in your homes and in all 
the circumstances in which it was my privilege to 
meet you. It was my joy to believe that the Lord 
had opened the hearts of my beloved people, and 
had given me an entrance in unto them, which 
promised the freest opportunity to labor for their 



WILLIAM W. DAVENPORT. 



9 l 



good. In the course of my ministry here I have 
made not far from three thousand two hundred 
calls upon my flock. Very many of these have 
been called for by the providential trials with 
which these families have been visited ; and I 
have thus been permitted to comfort them in 
sickness and bereavement, to counsel them in 
perplexity, and to sympathize with them in their 
various forms of trouble. I have found a ready 
ear to hear, often a willing heart to heed and act 
upon the counsels given or the views of duty pre- 
sented. And oh ! how freely have the assurances 
of appreciation and gratitude and respectful at- 
tachment been expressed ! Many of these calls 
have been made to meet cases of spiritual trial, — 
sometimes in the form of despondency, some- 
times of doubt and difficulty, and often of relig- 
ious impression and inquiry ; and while wisdom 
from above has been needed and sought, I have 
found my people willing to listen to the instruc- 
tions of their pastor; and often, to the joy of my 
own heart and theirs, have been permitted to lead 
them into the way of life, or of comfort, or of 
light. In not a few instances I have stood beside 
the dying beds of members of my flock ; some- 



9 2 



MEMORIAL OF 



times with unspeakable joy to witness the triumphs 
of their faith in the stern conflict with the last 
enemy ; and sometimes with deepest sadness to 
know that they were dying without a reasonable 
hope of heaven. It has likewise been my privi- 
lege to rejoice with those whom God has clothed 
with the garment of praise, and filled with the 
spirit of gladness by his favoring providence ; and 
to give thanks with them at the throne of grace 
and goodness for the benefits which the divine 
hand had bestowed. 

And, on the other hand, I have been made the 
glad and grateful recipient of many a kindness ; 
many a delicate expression of ingenuous esteem 
and attachment ; many an assurance that my 
efforts for the good of my people have not failed 
of appreciation at their full value, and beyond it. 

Can you wonder, dear friends, that, notwith- 
standing the inevitable trials of the ministry of 
the gospel, I have still found much to reward my 
toil and cheer my heart? that I have found the 
bonds of attachment between my people and my- 
self strong and delightful? May I not hope that 
some of you who hear me have found satisfaction 
in these same bonds? 



WILLIAM W. DAVENPORT. go 



But the point in which my relation to you as 
pastor has been most prominent in its influence 
upon the church and people is the public minis- 
trations of the sanctuary. Some of you will 
remember that, in the first discourse preached 
here as your pastor, I solemnly pledged myself 
to make Christ crucified the central theme of 
my preaching. After the example of the great 
apostle to the Gentiles, and aiming at the same 
spirit which he exhibited, "I determined not to 
know any thing among you save Jesus Christ, 
and him crucified." My distinct and unqualified 
purpose was to set before you, for the good of 
your souls, the same great doctrines on which I 
had rested the safety of my own ; and to do it 
with all possible plainness, and faithfulness, and 
boldness ; and to press home their practical re- 
sults with all the tenderness and earnestness of 
which I was capable. 

How has this pledge been redeemed? If it be 
accounted boasting, and if boasting be folly, yet 
bear with me a little in my folly. I call you to 
witness to-day, beloved flock, that Christ crucified 
has been the central and foremost theme of my 
instructions in this sacred desk, and in the place 



94 



MEMORIAL OF 



of social conference ; and that, in due connection 
with this theme, I have presented those great and 
important doctrines which it is most important for 
you to know and believe and act upon. I have 
set forth man's apostasy and ruin, and his con- 
demnation by the holy law of God ; the absolute 
need of regeneration ; the atonement of Christ 
as a satisfaction to divine justice for men ; their 
dependence upon the Holy Spirit to regenerate 
and sanctify them ; the perfect freeness, suffi- 
ciency, and sovereignty of divine grace ; and the 
necessity of a holy life in order to salvation. 
These great doctrines I have set forth with the 
full belief that they are the truth of God, revealed 
by him, and designed to be pressed upon the 
attention of lost men for their salvation. I dare 
not venture the bold apostolic declaration that I 
am pure from the blood of all men, being well 
aware of many imperfections in even the most 
faithful efforts for your good. But I call you to 
witness that I- have not timidly shunned to declare 
unto you the whole counsel of God, and have 
willingly kept back nothing that was profitable to 
you. I have not sought to preach myself, nor 
turned aside from the most serious and vital 



WILLIAM W. • DA VENP OR T. 



95 



themes to entertain you with pretty impertinences 
in this sacred place. I have not feared to speak 
whatever I deemed it my duty to proclaim, 
whether in the form of doctrine or duty ; whether 
rebuking sin or declaring distasteful truth. 
Nothing has knowingly been suffered to shape 
my utterances in this pulpit, but the will and word 
of Him by whose appointment I have stood here 
to preach at all. I have so aimed to preach the 
gospel, not as pleasing men, but God which trieth 
our hearts. But it has been my special joy to set 
forth the Lord Jesus Christ as the only and all- 
sufficient Saviour; to commend him to the confi- 
dence of perishing sinners ; and to entreat them 
in Christ's stead to be reconciled to God. 

In doing this I have had a rich reward. It has 
been with holy satisfaction that I have preached 
those truths which display the glorious holiness 
and justice of the universal Sovereign, the God 
of redemption ; but with peculiar delight that I 
have been permitted to set forth and dwell upon 
his matchless and infinite love in Jesus Christ. 
And I have had the added satisfactiun of know- 
ing that some among my people have been per- 
suaded to accept the mercy offered by my lips, 



9 6 



MEMORIAL OF 



and to fly to the precious blood of Christ as their 
only hope. A goodly number of these have 
publicly owned him at this altar, and now bear 
upon them the solemn vows of that covenant by 
which they became members of his visible church. 
There are also those here present who can testify 
to-day, as many of them have done in various 
forms, that they have been fed and instructed by 
the word preached, and stimulated and quickened 
in the Christian life ; while yet others have borne 
witness that they have been led to see a beauty 
and excellency in the Lord Jesus Christ to which 
they were previously strangers ; and that they 
have found his love as a motive growing more 
and more powerful, and leading them to a more 
entire and willing consecration to his service and 
glory. These things, as tokens of the Master's 
approval of my labors, have been my great 
reward. Yet not so great but that I have coveted 
it in far greater measure. But I make my boast 
only in the Lord. It is he, working through the 
human instrument ; dispensing the treasure from 
an earthen vessel, that the excellency of the 
power might be of God and not of man. And I 
would not cease for one moment to remember 



WILLIAM W. DAVENPORT. 



97 



that " not he which commendeth himself is ap- 
proved, but whom the Lord commendeth ; " yet I 
can and do, with gratitude and humility, point to 
some among you to whom he has made my min- 
istry a blessing, and say, "Ye are our epistle, 
known and read of all men." 

But now this ministry is to close, and to-day I 
must say to you all, Farewell. 

To the beloved members of this church I say 
this trying word. You have been with me in this 
ministry ; you have been indulgent to its imper- 
fections ; many of you have cheered and com- 
forted my heart by your faithfulness to Christ's 
cross and crown, and by manifest evidences of 
growing sanctification and efficiency in the Mas- 
ter's service. You have stayed up my hands by 
prayer, and have encouraged my heart by labor 
for the welfare of this church. You have my 
hearty thanks for all your intercessions in my 
behalf, and for all the help you have given me in 
my work. Some of you have received admoni- 
tion with meekness, and have heeded it; and 
there are some of whom I could wish that they 
had shown a more earnest and living interest in 
the promotion of the cause of Christ and the sal- 

9 



MEMORIAL OF 



vation of souls among us. But now we are called 
to separate. Our seasons of communion in public 
and social worship as pastor and people are at an 
end ; the joys of past fellowship in commemora- 
tion of a Saviour's dying love will still linger in 
our memories ; and the mutual love with which 
we have shared in these sacred occasions will not 
be wholly obliterated till we sit together at the 
marriage supper of the Lamb. Oh, be faithful, 
be true, be earnest, be consecrated heart and soul 
to the Lord Jesus Christ. Correct what is wrong ; 
supply what is lacking ; strengthen what is weak ; 
and remember that without Christ you can do 
nothing. 

Youthful members of this church, who have 
been led to Christ, and have publicly confessed 
him during my ministry, — I cannot forbear a 
special word to you. It has been with great joy 
and comfort that I have witnessed the degree of 
fidelity in duty, and stability in the Christian 
walk, which you have exhibited since you pro- 
fessed Christ and covenanted to be his. You will 
not think it strange that it is a prominent desire 
of my heart that -you should prove to be faithful, 
stable, growing, laborious Christians to the end 



WILLIAM W. DAVENPORT. qq 



of life. Permit me to hope that I may always 
have a good report of your faith, and love, and 
every other grace, and of your Christian walk. 
Let holy principle be always the governing power 
in your hearts and lives. Let not the world find 
the least encouragement in its worldliness from 
you. No matter who else may make affinity with 
it, do you be Christ's, — in practice as you are 
by covenant, looking for your reward from him ; 
and the God of love and peace shall be with 
you. 

Nor can I withhold my special farewell from 
the officers of this church, with whom I have 
walked in unbroken harmony and fellowship, 
and to whom I have been greatly indebted for aid 
and counsel in the discharge of my ministry. 
May the candle of the Lord shine upon you, and 
his grace be abundantly bestowed upon you in 
the future discharge of the same duties ; and may 
your reward be great at last. 

But there is one class, — alas, how large ! — in 
this congregation, to whom it makes my heart 
bleed to say farewell, with no assurance that my 
ministry has been the means of any good to them 
for eternity. Dear unconverted friends, must we 



IOO MEMORIAL OF 



part with this element of sadness in our separa- 
tion? with no certainty that we shall meet in 
heaven? God, who sent me to you, and who 
takes me from you, knows I have loved your 
souls, and have sought their salvation with intense 
desire. Your own consciences will bear witness 
that I have spoken to you with the greatest plain- 
ness, not only of your misery as sinners, but of 
your guilt. I have warned and invited and en- 
treated you, as God has enabled me ; but you 
are not saved. You have not made Christ yours ; 
have not yet taken your imperilled souls, and laid 
them in the mighty hand of Him who alone is able 
to save them. Suffer me, then, to entreat you 
this once more, by all the solemn verities of God's 
Word, and the equally solemn realities to which 
you and I are hastening ; by the awful justice 
and the tender compassion of your God; and, 
above all, by the dying love of the Lord Jesus 
Christ, to lay hold now of the refuge set before 
you. Do not compel me to be an unwilling wit- 
ness against you in the great day. Let not the 
opportunities of these seven years, neglected and 
perverted, be added to the weight that will sink 
you in eternal despair. Turn to your compas- 



WILLIAM W. DAVENPORT. 



IOI 



sionate God to-day ; believe now on the Lord 
Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved. 

Children and youth, I desire to keep fresh in 
my remembrance the joy I have felt in having 
your confidence and love these seven years that I 
have been your pastor ; and I trust that in future 
days I may know you are walking in the truth, 
and serving Him who has redeemed you. Give 
the love of your hearts to the Lord Jesus Christ 
now, and serve him faithfully while you live, that 
you may be his for ever. Some of you have 
already chosen him for your portion. May he 
keep and guide you to the end, guarding you 
from error and shielding you from sin, and bring 
you at last to the presence of his glory with ex- 
ceeding joy. 

Dear friends, the record of this ministry is 
about to be closed. All its events and circum- 
stances will soon be complete. These Sabbaths, 
these appeals, these invitations are now to end ; 
but their issues reach to the judgment-day, and 
stretch onward to eternity. There you and I will 
meet them, and will meet each other. Let me 
once more entreat you, then, dear friends, to re- 
member the words I have spoken unto you while 



102 MEMORIAL OF WILLIAM W. DAVENPORT. 

I was yet with you, and to obey the voice of 
divine authority and love, beseeching you not to 
neglect your own mercies. Let me also exhort 
you to guard the interests of this church and 
society with jealous care. Be loyal and faithful 
to the doctrines so long cherished here, and build 
up this church by your prayers and efforts, so 
that it may stand from generation to generation, 
rooted and grounded in the truth, and exhibiting 
the fruit of enlightened and stable piety in all its 
members. And, "finally, brethren, farewell. Be 
perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live 
in peace; and the God of love and peace shall 
be with you." 




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